“You recall the gesture, I remember cars on fire”
Just to prove Pete isn’t the only blogger with a half decent ear for a line of poetry, here’s a piece by Fred Johnston, that I first read in South Magazine in April 2006, and which I finally got permission from the author to ‘reprint’ on Slugger, just when my copy of the magazine disappeared in the morass of bookshelves here at Slugger Central. It has finally re-emerged. And I am very grateful for the author’s permission!
MAO-INGAt Carnsore Point there was a young man
Shouting at the crowd, preaching, passionate
In his way. Was this for show?I carried a copy of the Little Red Book
In the back pocket of my jeans. I marched
In Newry. What was it about?We differ in distance from what we were:
Miles and miles, a drip of years-
You recall the gesture, I remember cars on fire.Both of us were what we would become
Even then. Now we accuse each other
On the air of selling out this, buying that.Mao is dead. Ireland’s still hooked up
To familiar grids, parish wells of thought:
What we sold cost more than what we bought.Fred Johnston
“half decent ear for a line of poetry”
Half decent?
*Harrumph*
Good poem though.
patronizers anonymous
I love brian feeney
he’s not a fenian weenie
he may not be shay heaney
but he tastes just like martini.
Here’s a wee tongue in cheek one I prepared earlier. It’s dedicated to Fair Deal, as he’s obviously the only ‘yin’ who can ‘translate’ it ;op
Wha sez braid poetry’s deid?
Ye maun be awa in the heid.
Ah hinnae a clue
Hoo tae scrieve a haiku,
So Ah wrote ye a limrick insteid.
(Well it amused me…!)
…and it amused me also, Gonzo. Keep them coming!
The Braid has a new £20 (yes twenty) million Arts Centre and Museum, culture is alive and well up in the North it seems.
Maybe Gonzo will get to give a reading there…………..
Nice poem. Any recommendations concerning poetry websites?
Yes. I hate ‘em.
A Belfast children’s street rhyme I found in a collection in a library in Dublin.
Holy Mary Mother of God
Pray for me and Tommy Todd
I’m a Fenian
He’s a Prod
Holy Mary Mother of God